October 9 Market Close Update — approximately 5:15 p.m. Eastern. U.S. stocks closed higher Friday, completing a rebound from Thursday’s AI-driven selloff. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at 51,654.95, up 0.8% (about 423 points); the S&P 500 closed at 7,811.54, up 0.6% and just off its record; and the Nasdaq Composite ended at 27,366.17, up 0.6%, its fourth straight weekly gain.
Correction — October 9, 2026: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that WTI crude oil traded around $103.40 a barrel; that price was in the Brent range. The WTI and Brent figures have been corrected using timestamped market data.
U.S. stocks rebounded Friday as tech shares recovered from Thursday’s AI-driven selloff and oil prices eased after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would not attack Iran before next month’s midterm elections.
The Magnificent Seven bounced back after Thursday’s slide, which was triggered by reports that OpenAI’s annualized revenue of roughly $50 billion fell short of a reported $70 billion expectation.
The day’s sharpest moves came in telecom. SpaceX struck a roughly $8 billion deal to acquire Grain Management’s nationwide 800 MHz low-band wireless spectrum portfolio, pending FCC approval — a step toward making Starlink Mobile a major U.S. carrier. The move hit established carriers at the close: T-Mobile US fell 13.3% to its lowest in more than 33 months, AT&T dropped 9.9% and Verizon sank 8.8% — the three biggest S&P 500 decliners of the day. Tower operators moved the other way, with Crown Castle, SBA Communications and American Tower up roughly 7% to 16%. Note: AT&T and Verizon went ex-dividend on Friday, so part of their declines reflected payouts rather than the deal.
Oil eased on the Iran de-escalation even as Hurricane Isaias shut in about 63% of Gulf of Mexico crude output. No official Friday settlement was available at publication time; intraday quotes Friday morning had Brent around $102.60 to $103.50 a barrel and WTI near $90.20 to $91.85. Thursday’s official settlements were $91.49 for WTI and $104.28 for Brent.
The 10-year Treasury yield held near 5.25% on Friday, below the week’s multi-decade highs, after Thursday’s 30-year auction priced at the highest yield since August 2000.
In other corporate news, Humana rose about 11% after improved Medicare Advantage quality ratings for 2027, which feed into 2028 bonus payments. The University of Michigan’s preliminary October consumer sentiment reading came in at 46.3, down from 48.1 in September and below the roughly 47.8 consensus — the second-lowest reading on record, according to Reuters. The New York Fed’s one-year inflation expectations held at 3.1% for September.
Gold futures rose about 1.0% to $4,210 an ounce, and bitcoin traded around $83,000.
Sources: Barron’s, October 9; Investopedia, October 9; MarketWatch, October 9; Reuters, October 9 (oil); Investor’s Business Daily, October 9 (telecom); Reuters (consumer sentiment).
